Our Artists

Tana Patterson uses wheel throwing, hand building, stamp textures and slip painted images to create pottery that is durable, usable art. She has a B.A. in Ceramics and Drawing from MSU-Billings and a M.F.A. in Ceramics and Painting from Texas Tech University. Born and raised in Billings, Tana has been making and/or teaching art for over 30 years.

Wayne Small is a Billings, Montana area artist and creator of Rockin’ 7 Pottery. He lives on his small ranch in Shepherd Montana. Wayne has a degree in art from Montana State University and has been making pottery for over 10 years. He digs all the clay he uses by hand at his family’s horse ranch, the Rockin’ 7.

Wayne says, “Using local clay in my work lends it authenticity to Montana and my life. Clay and other materials from my home help express the experiences I’ve had living here my entire life. I use horses to harvest my clay because they have always been a part of my life and the land.”

Wayne makes pottery and sculptures from earthenware clay. He uses form, colors, and texture to create work that is analogous to the landscape.

The excitement of finger painting at age 5 launched a career in the arts that has continued for over 60 years for Deb Dudley.  Her career in graphic arts for 20 years, continuous oil painting from an early age, then the addition of the exploration of sculpting, carving clay bodies and stringing gemstones has sustained her love of art and her belief in its restorative ability to bring joy

Jim began learning pottery in Japan while he was supposed to be studying ancient Japanese poetry in preparation for becoming a college professor. He says, “It’s not that I dislike Japanese poetry, it’s still fascinating to me, but the idea of becoming a professor gave me claustrophobia. I read Bernard Leach’s A Potter’s Book and was hooked, never looked back.”

He apprenticed with several traditional potters and eventually built a studio and kiln in the mountains of central Japan. In 1978, he returned to his native Montana and served for a time as Potter in Residence at the Yellowstone Art Center (now “Museum”) before becoming a full-time studio potter. Over the past 40 years, despite occasionally earning his living as a Japanese teacher, a printer, a program administrator, an editor, and more recently as a rehabilitation counselor, he has thought of himself primarily as a production potter. He continues to make his unique high-fired functional stoneware, made to be used, made to be held in the user’s hand with joy.